Meeting Marathon!

A couple of you expressed a hope that I could knit in my meeting marathon. Ha ha! Allow me to clarifiy. This was one meeting that lasted for two full days. The first break we had on the first day was late afternoon, (apart from lunch, which was the only time I was able to knit.) So you may commence feeling sorry for me now. 😉

Today was better — I got home only a little late.

Actually, although the meeting went on for hours and hours (and hours and hours), it was very interesting and involved a lot of spirited discussion. This was the kick-off session for a project we are doing to created an online interactive advisor to help our regulated community comply with and understand their rights under one aspect of the law we enforce. There was a cast of thousands, the core of which was the project manager, two programmers/gurus, a contractor technical writer, the policy department regulatory expert, the policy department compliance assistance liaison for my agency, a representative from the departmental solicitor’s office, a subject matter expert from my agency, a contractor subject matter expert (an individual who retired from my agency a couple of years ago — hired on contract for this project), and little ol’ me (I am in charge of compliance assistance for my agency).

As I said, it was very interesting and also somewhat enjoyable and we made a great start on the project. One of the players listed above is a friend of mine (Hi, Mary!) so that made it more enjoyable too.

So there you have it. A glimpse into Real Life.

On to the knitting . . .

Although there was no meeting knitting, I did complete the heel on my second sock.

SockInProgress060507
A couple of you have asked why it is that cotton is hard on my hands. The yarn I used for the cardi is an aran-weight 100% cotton yarn and it has absolutely no stretch or “give” whatsoever. Executing k2tog in this yarn (particularly when you have to do so on the first row after casting on) is arduous and involves a lot of tugging. I find cotton blend yarns (like All Seasons Cotton) much more forgiving — the addition of microfiber adds a little more give.

But now I’m happily knitting along on sportweight silk. While silk doesn’t have as much give as wool, I find it much more forgiving than cotton.

At least it sounds like your 2-day meeting wasn’t a total snore-fest! And you got home early enough to be forgiven by Lucy!

I don’t know if I’m in the minority or not, but I don’t ever knit outside of my house and I don’t find myself wanting to. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I use 14″ needles and prop the left one on my lap as I work. I’d love to try circular needles but I’m not too sure that having to hold the left needle in my hand isn’t going to drive me buggy. But circulars do strike me as being much more portable than my 14-inchers.

I am currently working with cotton yarn and know what you mean about it not having much give.

Oh, yummo on that silk! I may have said this before, but if not I know I think it almost daily, you have got to be THE most prolific knitter I have ever seen! I would LOVE to see a movie of your hands at work — do you think you would ever be so kind as to tape your hands at work for us to see? Pretty Please??

And not only are you quick, everything is so bleeping gorgeous too — yes, I admit it, I am green with envy at the speed and accuracy at which you knit, Dear Wendy!

But, I do feel sorry for that meeting nightmare! That is one thing I could totally live without — meeting totally drain me!

Wendy, I read your blog all the time and am very envious of your sock knitting. I am working on a sock now that I ripped out once due to a gauge accident and then broke a size 0 Crystal Palace needle after picking up stitches for the gusset. Now I find myself knitting in a weird direction. Hope I don’t have to rip again! CLearly, I am new to this but find huge encouragement from how fast you knit your socks. Keep on sockin’.

That lustrous silk in that color goes so beautifully with the stitch pattern! Nice, very nice!

I agree with Lorraine; knitting at meetings would be a win-win situation. (I do actually knit — socks or similar small, simple projects — at dept. meetings — they’re used to me now. When I knit — at least something straightforward, not lace or color work! — I actually pay better attention to the meeting because my mind doesn’t wander off — I think the superficial, distractible part of my mind is occupied! And I’m certainly less cranky.)

I know what you mean about knitting with that particular cotton—it’s gorgeous once it’s knitted up, but it just sits on the needles and refuses to cut you any slack whatsoever. The lace is looking superb!

At first I thought it was old age that caused me to have aching hands from knitting with cotton, until I recalled that I rarely knit with cotton when I was younger. But I find that my fingers (particularly my pinky) get sore because I’m holding the cotton yarn and needles so much tighter to maintain the gauge than I do with wool. I’ve had pretty good success with Cotton Fleece, both in the appearance and in the wear-and-tear on my hands.

Your silk lace is beautiful–and once again you’ve given me some ideas on how to work with a similar yarn I have in my stash (and the color is also similar to yours!).

As a project manager by trade, I would encourage ALL team members to knit in marathon meeting sessions. I KNOW that the kick off meetings are LOOOOOOONG and involve using mucho gray matter. The only downside? As project manager, you have to facilitate the durn meeting and couldn’t knit even if everyone else did! BAH!
My therapy comes when I get home, plop the nearest kitty on my lap and listen to the hum of a purring cat and knit away. I live for those moments.
Denise and the Six-Pack plus 1

As a contract technical writer, I salute yours–hope he or she is good! And here’s hoping that some day some of us can get real jobs with genuine benefits! It’s scary how the Business World is moving more and more to contract workers with no benefits (I get zero paid days off–hate holidays now!).

Of course, a contract job knitting might not be so bad…if only it paid as well as instructional design! And at least I can knit at lunch, like you did during your giant meeting!

Ugh, Wendy. It sounds like your meeting was similar to those I used to attend when working for the public sector (before my store). Everytime I hear the words “compliance” and “regulatory” I think of environmental policy and water regulations. Oh, it’s really so much nicer to be surrounded by yarn instead!

I knit thru those kind of meetings and did so for 8 months of them. Have you tried it? I hadn’t before, but did because I found myself dozing off! Now I stay awake and can follow what’s happening so much better.

2018 Completed Work

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